Czech

Noun

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting
negotiations between
representatives of groups or states. It usually refers to
international diplomacy, the conduct of international
relations through the intercession of professional diplomats
with regard to issues of peace-making, trade, war, economics and culture. International treaties are usually
negotiated by diplomats prior to endorsement by national politicians.

The word stems from the Greek word
"diploma", which literally means 'folded in two'. In ancient
Greece, a diploma was a certificate certifying completion of a
course of study, typically folded in two. In the days of the
Roman
Empire, the word "diploma" was used to describe official travel
documents, such as passports and passes for imperial roads, that
were stamped on double metal plates. Later, the meaning was
extended to cover other official documents such as treaties with
foreign tribes. In the 1700s the French
called their body of officials attached to foreign legations the
corps "diplomatique". The word "diplomacy" was first introduced
into the English
language by Edmund Burke
in 1796, based on the French word "diplomatie". In an informal or
social sense, diplomacy is the employment of tact to gain strategic advantage, one set of
tools being the phrasing of statements in a non-confrontational, or
polite manner.

Diplomats and diplomatic missions

A diplomat is someone
involved in diplomacy; the collective term for a group of diplomats
from a single country who are resident in another country is a
diplomatic
mission. Ambassador
is the most senior diplomatic rank; a diplomatic mission headed by
an ambassador is known as an embassy.
The collective body of all diplomats of particular country is
called that country's diplomatic
service. The collective body of all diplomats assigned to a
particular country is the diplomatic
corps. (See also diplomatic
rank.)

History

Europe

The ability to practice diplomacy is one of the
defining elements of a state, and diplomacy has been practiced
since the first city-states
were formed millennia ago. For most of human history diplomats were
sent only for specific negotiations, and would return immediately
after their mission concluded. Diplomats were usually relatives of
the ruling family or of very high rank in order to give them
legitimacy when they sought to negotiate with the other
state.

Modern diplomacy's origins are often traced to
the states of Northern
Italy in the early Renaissance,
with the first embassies being established in the thirteenth
century. Milan played a
leading role, especially under Francesco
Sforza who established permanent embassies to the other city
states of Northern Italy. It was in Italy that many of
the traditions of modern diplomacy began, such as the presentation
of an ambassadors credentials to the head of
state.

From Italy the practice was spread to the other
European
powers. Milan was the first to send a representative to the court
of France in
1455. However, Milan refused to host French representatives fearing
espionage and that the French representatives would intervene in
its internal affairs. As foreign powers such as France and Spain became
increasingly involved in Italian politics the need to accept
emissaries was recognized. Soon the major European powers were
exchanging representatives. Spain was the first to send a permanent
representative; it appointed an ambassador to the Court
ofEngland in 1487. By
the late 16th century, permanent missions became customary. The
Holy
Roman Emperor, however, did not regularly send permanent
legates, as they could not represent the interests of all the
German
princes (who were in theory subordinate to the Emperor, but in
practice independent).

During that period the rules of modern diplomacy
were further developed. The top rank of representatives was an
ambassador. At that
time an ambassador was a nobleman, the rank of the noble assigned
varying with the prestige of the country he was delegated to.
Strict standards developed for ambassadors, requiring they have
large residences, host lavish parties, and play an important role
in the court life of their host nation. In Rome, the most prized
posting for a Catholic
ambassador, the French and Spanish representatives would have a
retinue of up to a hundred. Even in smaller posts, ambassadors were
very expensive. Smaller states would send and receive envoys, who were a rung below
ambassador. Somewhere between the two was the position of minister
plenipotentiary.

Diplomacy was a complex affair, even more so than
now. The ambassadors from each state were ranked by complex levels
of precedence that were much disputed. States were normally ranked
by the title of the sovereign; for Catholic
nations the emissary from the Vatican was
paramount, then those from the kingdoms, then those from
duchies and principalities.
Representatives from republics were considered the
lowest of the low. Determining precedence between two kingdoms
depended on a number of factors that often fluctuated, leading to
near-constant squabbling.

Ambassadors, nobles with little foreign
experience and no expectation of a career in diplomacy, needed to
be supported by large embassy staff. These professionals would be
sent on longer assignments and would be far more knowledgeable than
the higher-ranking officials about the host country. Embassy staff
would include a wide range of employees, including some dedicated
to espionage. The need
for skilled individuals to staff embassies was met by the graduates
of universities, and this led to a great increase in the study of
international
law, modern
languages, and history at universities throughout Europe.

At the same time, permanent foreign ministries
began to be established in almost all European states to coordinate
embassies and their staffs. These ministries were still far from
their modern form, and many of them had extraneous internal
responsibilities. Britain had two departments with frequently
overlapping powers until 1782. They were also far smaller than they
are currently. France, which boasted the largest foreign affairs
department, had only some 70 full-time employees in the
1780s.

The elements of modern diplomacy slowly spread to
Eastern
Europe and Russia, arriving by
the early eighteenth century. The entire edifice would be greatly
disrupted by the French
Revolution and the subsequent years of warfare. The revolution
would see commoners take over the diplomacy of the French state,
and of those conquered by revolutionary armies. Ranks of precedence
were abolished. Napoleon also
refused to acknowledge diplomatic immunity, imprisoning several
British diplomats accused of scheming against France.

After the fall of Napoleon, the Congress
of Vienna of 1815 established an international system of
diplomatic
rank. Disputes on precedence among nations (and therefore the
appropriate diplomatic ranks used) persisted for over a century
until after World War
II, when the rank of ambassador became the norm.
In between that time, figures such as the German Chancellor
Otto
von Bismark were renowned for international diplomacy.

Asia

Diplomatic relations within the Early Modern
era of Asia
were depicted as an environment of prestige and Status. It was
maintained that one must be of noble ancestry in order to represent
an autonomous state within the international arena. Therefore the
position of diplomat
was often revered as an element of the elitist class within Asia. A
state’s ability to practice diplomacy has been one of the
underlying defining characteristics of an autonomous state. It is
this practice that has been employed since the conception of the
first city-states within the international spectrum. Diplomats in
Asia were originally sent only for the purpose of negotiation. They would be
required to immediately return after their task was completed. The
majority of diplomats initially constituted the relatives of the
ruling family. A high rank was bestowed upon them in order to
present a sense of legitimacy with regards to their presence.
Italy, the
Ottoman
Empire, and China were the first
real states that perpetuated environments of diplomacy. During the
early modern era diplomacy evolved to become a crucial element of
international relations within the Mediterranean
and Asia.

The Ottoman Empire and Diplomacy

Diplomatic traditions
outside of Europe were more or less very different. A feature
necessary for diplomacy is the existence of a number of states of
somewhat equal power, as existed in Italy during the
Renaissance,
and in Europe for much of
the modern period. By contrast, in Asia and the Middle East,
China and the Ottoman Empire were reluctant to practice bilateral
diplomacy as they viewed themselves to be unquestionably superior
to all their neighbours (hence, set up smaller nations as
tributaries and vassals). The Ottoman
Turks, for instance, would not send missions to other states,
expecting representatives to come to Istanbul. It would
not be until the nineteenth century that the Ottoman Empire
established permanent embassies in other capitals.

The Ottoman Empire was extremely crucial to the
spectrum of politics, culture, and economics between Italy and
themselves. There were numerous Italian settlements within the
Ottoman Empire. This created the arena necessary for the emergence
of Italian-Ottoman relations. Italian innovation for trade
organizations and commercial experimentation could be attributed to
the growing presence within the Ottoman diplomatic and
transnational arena. The Genoese and
Venetian
governments of the early modern era regularly maintained that their
atmosphere of commerce depended less and less upon there nautical
capabilities, and more and more upon the perpetuation of good
relations with the Ottomans. Interactions between various
merchants, diplomats, and religious men between the Italian and
Ottoman empires helped inaugurate and create new forms of diplomacy
and statecraft.
Eventually the primary purpose of a diplomat, which was originally
a negotiator, evolved into a persona that represented an autonomous
state in all aspects of political affairs. It became evident that
all other sovereigns
felt the need to accommodate themselves diplomatically, due to the
emergence of the powerful political environment of the Ottoman
Empire. One could come to the conclusion that the atmosphere of
diplomacy within the early modern period revolved around a
foundation of conformity to Ottoman culture.

Italy and Diplomacy

The origins of modern diplomacy within
the international spectrum of politics, could often be traced back
to the states of Northern Italy. This was
during the early renaissance, where the first diplomatic embassies
were established in the thirteenth century. The state of Milan played an
incredible part in the establishment of permanent embassies within
the city states of Northern Italy. Various diplomatic traditions
were also conceived within Italy. The presentation of an Ambassador’s
credentials and acknowledgments are elements that were inaugurated
in Italian early modern diplomacy.

The practice of diplomacy and its various
intricacies were also spread to various other autonomous European states.
Milan created the first diplomatic international gesture in 1455,
by sending a representative to the court of France. It was
extremely controversial however, that they would not accept the
same gesture from France, due to the fears of espionage and intervention in
internal affairs. It had eventually become evident that as super
powers such as France and Spain grew in size
and strength, and there was an overarching necessity to accept any
form of diplomatic effort within the international arena.
Eventually Italy paved the way for all European power to exchange
representatives. By the late 16th century, permanent emissaries
were standard practice.

China and Diplomacy

The Koreans and Japanese during the
Chinese Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) looked to the Chinese capital of
Chang'an as the hub of civilization and emulated its central
bureaucracy as the pristine model of governance. The Japanese sent
frequent embassies to China in this period, although they halted
these trips in 894 during the Tang's imminent collapse. However,
there were periods of Chinese history where China was weakened and
threatened enough so that skillful international diplomacy was
necessary.

One of the earliest realists in
international relations theory was the 6th century BC military
strategist Sun Tzu, author
of The Art of
War. He lived during the Warring
States Period (403 BC-221 BC), a time in which rival states no
longer paid traditional respects of tutelage to the Zhou Dynasty
figurehead monarchs and each vied for power and total conquest.
However, a great deal of diplomacy in establishing allies,
bartering land, and signing peace treaties was necessary for each
warring state.

In the 11th century during the Song Dynasty
(960–1279), there were cunning ambassadors such as
Shen Kuo
and Su
Song who achieved diplomatic success with the Liao
Dynasty, the often hostile Khitan neighbor to
the north. Both diplomats secured the rightful borders of the Song
Dynasty through knowledge of cartography and dredging up
old court archives. There was also a triad of warfare and diplomacy
between these two states and the TangutWestern
Xia Dynasty to the northwest of Song China (centered in
modern-day Shaanxi).

Long before the Tang and Song dynasties, the
Chinese had sent envoys into Central
Asia, India, and Persia starting with
Zhang
Qian in the 2nd century BC. Another notable event in Chinese
diplomacy was the Chinese embassy mission of Zhou Daguan
to the Khmer Empire
of Cambodia in the
13th century. Chinese diplomacy was a necessity in the distinctive
period of Chinese
exploration. Since the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), the Chinese
also became heavily invested in sending diplomatic envoys abroad on
maritime
missions into the Indian
Ocean, to India, Persia, Arabia, East Africa,
and Egypt.
Chinese maritime activity was increased dramatically during the
commercialized period of the Song Dynasty, with new nautical
technologies, many more private ship owners, and an increasing
amount of economic investors in overseas ventures.

During the Mongol
Empire (1206-1294) the Mongols created something similar to
today's diplomatic passport called paiza. The paiza were in three
different types (golden, silver, and copper) depending on the
envoy's level of importance. With the paiza, there came authority
that the envoy can ask for food, transport, place to stay from any
city, village, or clan within the empire with no
difficulties.

As European power spread around the world in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries so too did its diplomatic model
and system become adopted by Asian countries.

Diplomatic strategy

Real world diplomatic negotiations are
very different from intellectual debates in a university where an
issue is decided on the merit of the arguments and negotiators make
a deal by splitting the difference. Though diplomatic agreements
can sometimes be reached among liberal democratic nations by
appealing to higher principles, most real world diplomacy has
traditionally been heavily influenced by hard
power.

The interaction of strength and diplomacy can be
illustrated by a comparison to labor negotiations. If a labor union
is not willing to strike, then the union is not going anywhere
because management has absolutely no incentive to agree to union
demands. On the other hand, if management is not willing to take a
strike, then the company will be walked all over by the labor
union, and management will be forced to agree to any demand the
union makes. The same concept applies to diplomatic
negotiations.

There are also incentives in diplomacy to act
reasonably, especially if the support of other actors is needed.
The gain from winning one negotiation can be much less than the
increased hostility from other parts. This is also called soft
power.

Many situations in modern diplomacy are also
rules based. When for instance two WTO countries have
trade dispute, it is in the interest of both to limit the spill
over damage to other areas by following some agreed-upon
rules.

Diplomatic immunity

The sanctity of diplomats has long been observed.
This sanctity has come to be known as diplomatic
immunity. While there have been a number of cases where
diplomats have been killed, this is normally viewed as a great
breach of honour. Genghis Khan
and the Mongols were well
known for strongly insisting on the rights of diplomats, and they
would often wreak horrific vengeance against any state that
violated these rights.

Diplomatic rights were established in the
mid-seventeenth century in Europe and have spread throughout the
world. These rights were formalized by the 1961
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which protects
diplomats from being persecuted or prosecuted while on a
diplomatic mission. If a diplomat does commit a serious crime while
in a host country he may be declared as persona
non grata (unwanted person). Such diplomats are then often
tried for the crime in their homeland.

Diplomatic communications are also viewed as
sacrosanct, and diplomats have long been allowed to carry documents
across borders without being searched. The mechanism for this is
the so-called "diplomatic
bag" (or, in some countries, the "diplomatic pouch"). In recent
years, however, signals
intelligence has led to this use of diplomatic bags being
largely discarded.

In times of hostility, diplomats are often
withdrawn for reasons of personal safety, as well as in some cases
when the host country is friendly but there is a perceived threat
from internal dissidents. Ambassadors and other diplomats are
sometimes recalled temporarily by their home countries as a way to
express displeasure with the host country. In both cases,
lower-level employees still remain to actually do the business of
diplomacy.

Diplomats as a Guarantee

In the Ottoman Empire, the
diplomats of Persia and other states were seen as a guarantee of
good behavior. If a nation broke a treaty or if their nationals
misbehaved the diplomats would be punished. Diplomats were thus
used as an enforcement mechanism on treaties and international law.
To ensure that punishing a diplomat mattered rulers insisted on
high-ranking figures. This tradition is seen by supporters of Iran
as a legal basis of the 1979 Iranian
hostage crisis. In imitation of alleged previous practices
supporters of the Iranian
Revolution attempted to punish the United States for its
alleged misdeeds by holding their diplomats hostage. Diplomats as a
guarantee were also employed sometimes in pre-modern Europe and
other parts of Asia.

Diplomacy and espionage

Diplomacy is closely linked to
espionage or gathering of intelligence. Embassies are bases for
both diplomats and spies, and some diplomats are essentially
openly-acknowledged spies. For instance, the job of military
attachés includes learning as much as possible about the
military of the nation to which they are assigned. They do not try
to hide this role and, as such, are only invited to events allowed
by their hosts, such as military parades or air shows. There
are also deep-cover spies operating in many embassies. These
individuals are given fake positions at the embassy, but their main
task is to illegally gather intelligence, usually by coordinating
spy rings of locals or other spies. For the most part, spies
operating out of embassies gather little intelligence themselves
and their identities tend to be known by the opposition. If
discovered, these diplomats can be expelled from an embassy, but
for the most part counter-intelligence
agencies prefer to keep these agents in situ and under close
monitoring.

The information gathered by spies plays an
increasingly important role in diplomacy. Arms-control treaties
would be impossible without the power of reconnaissance
satellites and agents to monitor compliance. Information
gleaned from espionage is useful in almost all forms of diplomacy,
everything from trade agreements to border disputes.

Diplomatic resolution of problems

Various processes and
procedures have evolved over time for handling diplomatic issues
and disputes.

Arbitration and mediations

Nations sometimes resort to international
arbitration when faced with a specific question or point of
contention in need of resolution. For most of history, there were
no official or formal procedures for such proceedings. They were
generally accepted to abide by general principles and protocols
related to international
law and justice.

Sometimes these took the form of formal
arbitrations and mediations. In such cases a commission of
diplomats might be convened to hear all sides of an issue, and to
come some sort of ruling based on international law.

Hay-Herbert
Treaty Enacted after the United States and Britain submitted a
dispute to international mediation about the US-Canadian
border.

Conferences

Other times, resolutions were sought through
the convening of international conferences. In such cases, there
are fewer ground rules, and fewer formal applications of
international law. However, participants are expected to guide
themselves through principles of international fairness, logic, and
protocol.

Some examples of these formal conferences
are:

Congress
of Vienna (1815) - After Napoleon was
defeated, there were many diplomatic questions waiting to be
resolved. This included the shape of the map of Europe, the
disposition of political and nationalist claims of
various ethnic groups and nationalities wishing to have some
political autonomy, and the resolution of various claims by various
European powers.

The Congress
of Berlin (June 13 - July 13, 1878) was a meeting of the
European Great Powers' and the Ottoman Empire's leading statesmen
in Berlin in 1878. In the wake of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78,
the meeting's aim was to reorganize conditions in the
Balkans.

Negotiations

Sometimes nations convene official negotiation
processes to settle an issue or dispute between several nations
which are parties to a dispute. These are similar to the
conferences mentioned above, as there are technically no
established rules or procedures. However, there are general
principles and precedents which help define a course for such
proceedings.

Some examples are

Camp
David accord Convened in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter of the
United States, at Camp David to reach an agreement between Prime
Minister Mechaem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of
Egypt. After weeks of negotiation, agreement was reached and the
accords were signed, later leading directly to the Israel-Egypt
Peace Treaty of 1979.

Diplomatic recognition

Diplomatic
recognition is an important factor in determining whether a
nation is an independent state. Receiving recognition is often
difficult, even for countries which are fully sovereign. For many
decades after becoming independent, even many of the closest allies
of the Dutch
Republic refused to grant it full recognition. Today there are
a number of independent entities without widespread diplomatic
recognition, most notably the Republic
of China on Taiwan. Since the
1970s, most nations have stopped officially recognizing the ROC's
existence on Taiwan, at the insistence of the
People's Republic of China. Currently, the United States and
other nations maintain informal relations through de facto
embassies, with names such as the
American Institute in Taiwan. Similarly, Taiwan's de facto
embassies abroad are known by names such as the
Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office. This was
not always the case, with the US maintaining official diplomatic
ties with the ROC, recognizing it as the sole and legitimate
government of all of China until 1979, when these relations were
broken off as a condition for establishing official relations with
Communist China.

The Palestinian
Authority has its own diplomatic service, however Palestinian
representatives in most Western countries are not accorded
diplomatic immunity, and their missions are referred to as
Delegations General.

Though used as a factor in judging sovereignty,
Article 3 of the Montevideo
Convention states, "The political existence of the state is
independent of recognition by other states."

Informal diplomacy

Informal diplomacy (sometimes called
Track II diplomacy) has been used for centuries to communicate
between powers. Most diplomats work to recruit figures in other
nations who might be able to give informal access to a country's
leadership. In some situations, such as between the United
States and the People's Republic of China a large amount of
diplomacy is done through semi-formal channels using interlocutors such as
academic members of thinktanks. This occurs in
situations where governments wish to express intentions or to
suggest methods of resolving a diplomatic situation, but do not
wish to express a formal position.

Track II diplomacy is a specific kind of informal
diplomacy, in which non-officials (academic scholars, retired civil
and military officials, public figures, social activists) engage in
dialogue, with the aim of conflict resolution, or
confidence-building. Sometimes governments may fund such Track II
exchanges. Sometimes the exchanges may have no connection at all
with governments, or may even act in defiance of governments; such
exchanges are called Track III.

Paradiplomacy

Paradiplomacy
refers to the international relations conducted by subnational,
regional, local or non-central governments. The most ordinary case
of paradiplomatic relation refer to co-operation between bordering
political entities. However, interest of federal states, provinces,
regions etc., may extend over to different regions or to issues
gathering local governments in multilateral fora worldwide. Some
non-central governments may be allowed to negotiate and enter into
agreement with foreign central states.

Cultural diplomacy

Cultural
diplomacy is a part of diplomacy. It alludes to a new way of
making diplomacy by involving new non governmental and non
professional actors in the making of diplomacy. In the frame of
globalization, culture plays a major role in the definition of
identity and in the relations between people. Joseph Nye points out
the importance of having a soft power besides a hard power. When
classical diplomacy fails, a better knowledge can help bridging the
gap between different cultures. Cultural
diplomacy becomes a subject of academic studies based on
historical essays on the United States, Europe, and the Cold
War.

References

A Guide to Diplomatic Practice by Sir Ernest
Satow, Longmans, Green & Co. London & New York, 1917. A
standard reference work used in many embassies across the world
(though not British ones). Now in its fifth edition (1998) ISBN
0-582-50109-1

Diplomacy
of Small States. An international conference dealing with the
issues of foreign policy, negotiation tactics, diplomatic missions,
crisis and humanitarian diplomacy of small states. See also
conference discussion
papers.

Modern
Diplomacy Reviewed A collection of articles analyzing modern
diplomacy from various angles: diplomatic analogy, impact of
internet on diplomacy, diplomatic tools and methods, diplomatic
representation, good governance, public diplomacy

Goffman, Daniel. “Negotiating with the Renaissance State: The
Ottoman Empire and the New Diplomacy.” In The Early Modern
Ottomans: Remapping the Empire. Eds. Virginia Aksan and Daniel
Goffman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 61-74.

Wicquefort, Abraham de. 1716. The Embassador and His Functions
To Which Is Added, an Historical Discourse, Concerning the Election
of the Emperor and the Electors. Trans. John Digby. London: Printed
for B. Lintott, pp. 253-56.